The issue follows the discussion between Slavoj Zizek, Alenka Zupancic, Mladen Dolar, Keti Chukhrov, Aaron Schuster, and Oxana Timofeeva, which took place in Ljubljana in May 2014. The idea of this discussion was inspired by the short essay “Antisexus”, written by Andrey Platonov in 1926.

This satirical essay presents itself an advertising brochure for a mass-produced masturbatory device, proposed by a big Western company for the Soviet market. Platonov’s text is a remarkable document of the era of Russian Revolutionary avant-garde, a period of a very unique cultural breakthrough, which questioned all habitual ideas concerning human society and proclaimed new models for politics, ethics, aesthetics, etc. Between the October revolution of 1917 and Stalin’s restoration of traditional family values, the problem of sexuality was of major concern. In contemporary capitalism, sexual economy is a problem again, but the stakes are different. They vary from a wide movement of sexual liberation on the level of private and individual freedoms in Western countries to puritanism or growing restrictions and prohibitions in countries like Russia; from the widespread commodification of pleasure to asexuality as an identity or individual choice.

Articles can be sent in English (the preferred language), in Russian, or in an another European language. All pre-accepted articles are peer-reviewed. The maximal length is 9000 words. Guidelines for editing are accessible here.